The Tenses is a duo comprised of Ju Suk Reet Meate and Jackie Oblivia, two veterans of the weirdo art collective that is known as the Los Angeles Free Music Society. They also form the core of legendary experimental juggernaut Smegma. The LAFMS have been a singular force in DIY culture ever since the early '70s and encapsulated an endless string of projects and bands that married a sort of proto-punk with trashy guitars, avant-garde music, tape manipulations, free jazz, improv, and absurd vocalizations into a hyper-original and singular form of music. They're seen by many as the originators of noise music, and have been an immense influence on bands like Sun City Girls, Merzbow, Wolf Eyes, No Neck Blues Band, etc. The Tenses is one of the latest vessels for Ju Suk and Jackie to explore the outer realms of sound and space. Compared to the mothership that is Smegma, it is a more compact and intimate project where turntables, tape collages, distorted surf guitar and coronet are used to create elaborate, haunted atmospheres. After releases on Harbinger Sound and their own Pigface Records, The Tenses now add another chapter to their history with Howard, their LP on Belgian imprint audioMER. Howard is a mind-expanding tour de force that scrambles spoken-word deconstructions and spontaneous freak-outs into a musical non-sequitur; a strange and disorienting trip. Loops of voices from long-lost instruction movies, shortwave radio dramas that get overrun with sirens, various non-instrumental sounds, and a bewildering stretch of Link Wray-like guitar riffs; Howard is a record that oozes paranoia, the perfect soundtrack for making explosives in your basement. Comes in a limited edition of 300 copies with artwork by Wouter Vandevoorde and design by Wouter Vanhaelemeesch and Jeroen Wille.

Rome-based producer Egisto Sopor has been turning heads with a steady stream of most excellent releases. A CD-R on Legowelt's Strange Life Records, a tape on 100 % Silk, a double LP on Planet Mu and an ever-growing series of jams that are put on Soundcloud or on his Youtube channel. All of which offer atmospheric, acid-tinged techno laced with idiosyncratic touches. He has thus developed quite a cult-following among lovers of lo-fi electronic music who eagerly await his next grainy video, that feel like lost transmissions from an early '90s MTV broadcast. Polysick doesn't get out much and keeps a low profile which adds to his rather enigmatic standing. With his new LP Daydream, Egisto has created the perfect soundtrack to a midnight trip through darkened cityscapes. Starting out like a confused jam session, it slowly takes off and twists into uncanny shapes, conjuring up images of a futuristic nightlife that plays out under neon lights, with a feeling of dread constantly lurking in the shadows. This is techno that tells a tale; a storyboard that comes pushing through in muffled flashes. A chase scene through deserted back alleys, executed while hunter and prey are both in a half-awake state, stuck in an infinite loop. And when the ambient synth twirls unravel and a 4/4 pulse kicks in and tears through the dreamy state of consciousness, it never signals a reassuring release of tension. You might dance to it, but not without anxiously looking over your shoulder. 180 gram vinyl limited to 500 copies.

The person behind Urpf Lanze is Belgian visual artist Wouter Vanhaelemeesch, who is mainly known for his large-scale ink drawings that offer a hermetic blend of weirdo characters, medieval iconography and surrealist decors. His artwork started gaining some attention a few years ago when renowned avant-garde lutenist Jozef Van Wissem started using Vanhaelemeesch's work to decorate many sleeves of his recorded output, including his collaborations with filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, noise legends Smegma, free-folk band United Bible Studies and fingerpicker James Blackshaw. Next to doing exhibitions in places like Tokyo, New York and Paris, his drawings appear regularly in zines and underground publications all over the world. He also runs the audioMER label together with designer Jeroen Wille and has provided artwork for records by Jack Rose, Robbie Basho, Mauro Antonio Pawlowski, Cian Nugent, Graveyards, Second Family Band and many others. Urpf Lanze is the moniker of his rather unorthodox solo guitar project, under which he has been playing for several years now. With an acoustic guitar that lays flat on his lap, tuned to unwieldy scales, he brutalizes the instrument in an oddly musical way. As if this wasn't enough, he lays down some vocal work that goes from ventriloquist-like whines and mumbles to deep and guttural grunts. The result is a rather unhinged and demented music. Imagine the rawness of Bill Orcutt, the more frightening sides of Loren Mazzacane Connors and the absurd stylings of Wilburn Burchette all wrapped into a Lovecraftian sonic nightmare. Procession of Talking Mirrors is his first full-length solo album. Recorded live on a 4-track tape recorder, these six tracks offer a mixture of Japanese folk music, free psych, scratchy Delta-blues recordings, damaged lo-fi and aggressively percussive fingerpicking. While some tracks may carry a more melancholy tone, others seem closer to acoustic death metal than any kind of folk music. However you may describe it, it is most definitely not a record for the faint of heart.

2011 release. Whiteout is a weather condition in which visibility and contrast are severely reduced. The horizon disappears completely and there are no reference points at all, leaving one with a distorted orientation. These same characteristics could be applied to the sound of the musical brainchild of Lin Culbertson and Tom Surgal. In the past White Out have been heralded for the way they entirely reinvent themselves to accommodate the creative personalities of their many prestigious collaborators, including Thurston Moore, Nels Cline, Jim O'Rourke, William Winant, and many others. Recorded over an extended period of time in an undisclosed midtown Manhattan location high above the city streets, Asphalt and Delay marks the first time in White Out's recorded history that Culbertson and Surgal have devoted an entire album to duo improvisations. Each of the five compositions captures a different hue of the spectrum of sound in White Out's sonic universe. Asphalt and Delay puts White Out in a whole new light, unfettered by any external influences they burn super nova bright. The artwork for this LP is provided by Belgian photographer Yoko Tack.

2009 release. In collaboration with Croxhapox Gallery, AudioMER. presents Sachiko's first all-drone vinyl release. Heavy-weight vinyl and paste-on sleeve with artwork created by Johan De Wilde. Stellar vocals and drones: three pieces of hypnotic, gliding delight. "The first side is a completely mesmerizing stone. Accompanied by Rinji Fukuoka (Overhang Party) on voice and cello, Sachiko sounds as if she is gargling planets as she levitates wordless vocals through a slowly shifting bible-black background of orchestral drone and eternal music strings generated by vortices of cello and viola and hovering electronics. Can't think of anything that so beautifully combines the vision of the original Dream Syndicate with the aesthetics of dark Japanese psychedelia. On the flip there are two tracks, both of which extend the time-blurring effects of the first side into new zones of heavenly tonefloat, with Sachiko's high vocal style dissolving in butterflies of F/X while electronics hiss and spit and intergalactic shortwave travels through endless space. Easily the best record she has made to date, a mesmeric slice of higher-minded drone narcosis and a classic Japanese underground side. Highly recommended." -- David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue.

2010 release. "Le Piano Demécanisé is the result of Frederik Croene's urge to sabotage the piano, to destroy the nostalgic relation between player and instrument, making obsolete acquired techniques, finding himself unable to play repertoire, thus freeing himself and the object." -- Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly 757. Frederik Croene performs his music on a "dismantled" piano, which, if I believe the cover of this record, looks like a drum set. It seems to me that much of the music is played in an improvised manner, but perhaps with classical training in mind. Also, again, I am not sure but it could very well be that Croene takes his inspiration from Zen. Sometimes, like in "Gonflammation," the piano actually sounds like a piano, which is odd if it has been dismantled, but in "Postludium 'pour le piano,'" Croene allows external piano sounds into his music. Overall the music has a very contemplative and percussive nature. Either with hands, sticks, or bows, he gently approaches the piano and works on it, very much like a composer, an explorer, and an improviser. Croene explores the possibilities in a careful way, almost like a scientist, and let's the results speak for themselves. Hard to place on the scale composition versus improvisation, but throughout very nice.

Review in Vital Weekly 757 by Frans de Waard: "Obviously I can't review this 3CD by the for-me-unknown Mireille Capelle. Let me explain. Each CD has one piece of music, but to play the complete piece you will have to play two CDs on four speakers at the same time. Such elaborate set up is not allowed here in the Vital HQ building, but I understand that each can also be heard individually. Phew, that's a relief. From the extensive booklet I gather Capelle, who has a training in classical music, in singing, as well as appearing in various films and she composes her 'sonic architectures' with natural elements and these three (two?) works are part of that. It all sounds very Zen-inspired, both the music and the written aspect of this. I'm not sure how her compositional techniques work, but on 'Naga' I think she uses mainly laptop and perhaps some sort of Max/msp patch in a very tranquil way. A bit like Christophe Charles on his Ritornell CD. On 'Anello,' the sound sources seem to be more of an acoustic nature, but also treated with the aid of the computer. It has, like 'Naga', a fine open sense of open space. 'Sunyata' is on the other hand a very closed work. It takes a long time before one hears anything at all, and it slowly turns out to be a work for flute and cello. Each of the three pieces has an entirely different length, so I'm not sure what the idea is when you are playing these together, but I could very well imagine that playing all three at the same time might bring further enlightenment."

2008 release. Mauro Antonio Pawlowski is best known for playing skronky guitar riffs in various Belgian bands such as Deus, Othin Spake, Evil Superstars, Club Moral, and countless other projects. On his own he is notorious for being an unpredictable master of puppets who simultaneously oozes freshly demented nursery rhymes and weird avant rock from his trousers. Untertanz is a collection of live performances that capture his free jazz take on madman rock 'n' roll. Think Ciccone Youth era Sonic Youth, Bruce Haack, The Residents, Jandek, and Derek Bailey. Ranging from abstract spooky blues to musique concrète made for stampeding schoolgirls to wonky dances of death, this album captures Pawlowski at his most alchemic and complete.